Looker (DVD)

I love Looker and always have, this movie has always topped my list of lost films not available on home video from the 80's and I ordered it from Amazon as soon as I could when it became available. My only regret is that it is not available on Blu-ray yet which I will buy as soon as it is. Michael Crighton is a genius filmmaker and writer, and if you love Crighton's techno thriller novels like Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Timeline, Airframe, Congo and all the rest Looker is the book he made into a film instead! Looker stands up against all of Crighton's books and is actually better than any of the films based on his books. I think the Jurassic Park films are terrible and are among Spielberg's worst... but Crighton was a masterful filmmaker as well as writer and even though not all of his films were good the best that stand out are: The Great Train Robbery, Coma and Looker. I truly love Looker and not just because of nostalgia for the 80's, Looker was like TRON very much ahead of it's time and still is predicting computers and computer graphic role in entertainment and industry. How essential computer graphics and programs have become to marketing and design, we aren't quite yet to the level of reproducing an actor with a programmed personality the way that Looker represents but I would not put it past a corporation to bump off supermodels and actors in the same way they do in this film to retain the rights of the model after death and continue to use their likeness, personality and voice for marketing. The plot is original and diabolical, Albert Finney is an unlikely hero here and therefore an original one; a plastic surgeon? But yet it works and he is likeable, same with Susan Dey as the idealistic model in a corrupt industry. "They are killing off all the perfect girls" Looker is astounding, perfectly directed, edited, acted and along with both the original TRON and War Games with Mathrew Broderick ingeniously predicts the world we live in today! Looker is fun, stylish, dramatic, thriller and high tech - please check out LOOKER now and also check out Coma and The Great Train Robbery. I am just sad to report that only Coma is available on Blu-ray because for me, in this order are Crighton's films best. Looker, The Great Train Robbery and then Coma... Westworld and Runaway I'm only mildly interested in. Funny enough though for me his best two novels were Airframe and Pirate Latitudes both of which actually steer away from being super tech thrillers to more humanistic fun adventures. As far as the tech thrillers go there is Timeline, Jurassic Park, Prey, The Lost World, Next, A Case Of Need and a whole slew of them but for just plain great reads and adventure/thrillers Airframe and Pirate Latitudes are in my opinion the best. Funny though how those are the only two Crighton stories that don't have films to them but for me are the best reads. I hope a great director does them justice one day and I hope that Michael Crighton will someday be remembered as a great director/writer for his original thriller LOOKER as well.

Wonderful movie and very ahead of it's time. I saw this when I was young after my parents taped it on TV. Very pleased to own this rather futuristic and thrilling movie again!

This movie's theme is different than most. It's, potentially at least, an open indictment of corporate power and control. While that's part of the intended message, it's also rather clear it takes a back seat to the story, so it isn't nearly as central or as developed as it might've been. On the whole, I enjoy rewatching this movie from time to time, but in the back of my mind I still can't help but wonder what kind of film it perhaps might've been. I mean, I wonder what somebody with the vision of, say, Frankenheimer might've done with a story like this. Still in a way, I'm glad they were able to make this movie when they did. Even if what it was trying to warn us about now seems but a drop in the bucket compared to everything related to this that's happening today. Turns out it has only foreshadowed ideas like social media platforms being developed by 3-letter agencies, and metaverse. But I'm certain the definitive film on all that - for our times - has yet to be made. But looking back across the decades at the handful of movies that Did try to warn us about the corporate future forecast (i.e. The Parallax View, Seconds, etc.), it seems more like society since has only kept moving backwards, not forwards, in it's ability to keep up with the impact of changing times in human terms. Even with this 'overriding flaw' though, Looker itself is actually for me an enjoyable romp as it is and, by mixing in the anti-TV/anti-corporate messaging, it simply makes the story all the more tantalizing and somewhat thought provoking, at least around the edges. Even if that reduces the impact of its underlying theme to mere 'fluff' or window dressing. No, the filmmakers weren't being all that horribly brave, or alarmist, by making it in this watered-down, 'entertainment-oriented' form perhaps, but could there have been any pressure from the studio system for them to comply, to not rock the corporate boat? Maybe, maybe not...who knows. (SPOILER ALERT!!) Here's an example of the anti-TV content of the film as it is: John Reston (James Coburn) of Reston Industries gives a speech to investors on the topic of TV as a way to introduce his computer tech he's developed to create the most effective TV ads ever. "Television: the most powerful selling medium in the history of mankind...Television can control public opinion more than an army of secret police because television is entirely voluntary. The American government forces our children to attend school, but nobody forces them to watch TV - Americans have always SUBMITTED to television. Television is the American ideal - persuasion - Without torture - nobody makes us watch. Who would've predicted that a free people would voluntarily spend 1/5th of their lives sitting in front of a box with pictures. 15 years in prison is punishment, but 15 years in front of a television is entertainment. And the average American now spends more than one and a half years of his life watching commercials - 50 minutes every day of his life watching commercials - now that's power." Is all this over top?? That's what the film leaves you to decide. But of course all that was penned back in 1981. What would those numbers look like today? But, fwiw, as it is, Looker is a fun, stylish (in a retro, 80's kinda way), sexy thriller, with a high entertainment factor and a good musical score. I quite recommend it actually, said flaw and all.

Good flick!!

I love the movie. It’s not for everyone. But if you’re looking for an Albert Finney- driven film with computers, action, intrigue, sexy models, and a stun gun directed by Michael Crichton…then this is for you.

Very good 1980's movie

Interesting premise. Silly and not at all credible.

Der Film ist einfach einer der Besten der achtziger Jahre. Damals noch fantastisch, ist alles heutzutage real. Die Warnungen im Film hat man alle in den Wind geschlagen. Jede V.I.P. Fresse von heute ist von Schönheits Chirurgen verunstaltet, die sich eine goldene Nase verdienen. Der Computer und die Handys sind der absolute Fluch dieser neuen Welt. Das Bild ist scharf, der Ton rein. Läuft alles auch auf einen normalen D V D Player. Der NTSC kompatibel ist, sind aber die neuen heute. Englischer Text und Untertitel. Ein Intro mit Michael Crichten plus ein Kommentar runten die Sache ab. Ein Trailer gibt's noch. Alles englisch. Wer englisch kann, sollte zugreifen. Ansonsten kann man ja was lernen. Aber ich verstehe nicht, warum es den Film nicht in Deutsch gibt.??

génial bon thriller !

An oldie but a superb Crighto adaptation

Great old movie, that reads today like a parody.

All good